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About CDC.gov

The Pittsburgh (Pa.) and Spokane (Wash.) Research Laboratories are among the world’s foremost mining research establishments. Once a part of the former U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM), which was abolished by the U.S. Congress in fiscal year 96, health and safety research at these laboratories was transferred to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). NIOSH is the Federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related illness and injury. The Institute is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Over the past two decades, the Pittsburgh and Spokane Research Laboratories have produced sustained technological achievements in mining health and safety, including— • Development of novel respirable coal dust control technologies and more effective monitoring techniques to reduce worker exposure to hazardous mine dusts. • Improved ground control technologies to warn and protect miners from the dangers of coal mine roof collapses and other hazardous strata conditions. • Improved ergonomic design criteria and training methods to protect mine workers from injuries and fatalities associated with equipment and manual tasks. • Development of enabling technologies that allow miners to control their mining equipment from a physically safe, protected work area away from respirable dust, harmful noise levels, and roof collapses. • Improved mine fire detection and extinguishment techniques. • Development of smaller, lighter, and safer emergency breathing devices.

This chapter details the perspective from which collected data have been examined. The first part, intended primarily for lay readers, discusses several topics related to mining as an enterprise. Initially, the organizational functioning of atypical ...

During the 20th century, the increased emphasis on worker health and safety and the advent of new mining equipment and methods led to many changes in mine face ventilation practices. Efforts by government and private industry to improve and modify ve...

Underground coal mining continues to evolve in the U.S., and more reserves are being mined under deeper cover, with worse roof, or with interactions from previous workings. At the same time, the mining community is responding to higher safety standar...